rd of what was going on. It
might be nothing more than the ordinary "grab racket" with which a feast
commonly concludes; it might be something worse. We made what
arrangements we could for my tapa, fans, etc., as well as for my five
pigs, my masses of fish, taro, etc., and with great dignity, and
ourselves laden with ulas and other decorations, passed between the
sentries among the howling mob to our horses. All's well that ends well.
Owing to Fanny and Belle, we had to walk; and, as Lloyd said, "he had at
last ridden in a circus." The whole length of Apia we paced our
triumphal progress, past the king's palace, past the German firm at
Sogi--you can follow it on the map--amidst admiring exclamations of
"_Mawaia_"--beautiful--it may be rendered "O my! ain't they
dandy"--until we turned up at last into our road as the dusk deepened
into night. It was really exciting. And there is one thing sure: no such
feast was ever made for a single family, and no such present ever given
to a single white man. It is something to have been the hero of it. And
whatever other ingredients there were, undoubtedly gratitude was
present. As money value I have actually gained on the transaction!

Your note arrived; little profit, I must say. Scott has already put his
nose in, in _St. Ives_, sir; but his appearance is not yet complete;
nothing is in that romance, except the story. I have to announce that I
am off work, probably for six months. I must own that I have overworked
bitterly--overworked--there, that's legible. My hand is a thing that
was, and in the meanwhile so are my brains. And here, in the very midst,
comes a plausible scheme to make Vailima pay, which will perhaps let me
into considerable expense just when I don't want it. You know the vast
cynicism of my view of affairs, and how readily and (as some people say)
with how much gusto I take the darker view?

Why do you not send me Jerome K. Jerome's paper, and let me see _The Ebb
Tide_ as a serial? It is always very important to see a thing in
different presentments. I want every number. Politically we begin the
new year with every expectation of a bust in 2 or 3 days, a bust which
may spell destruction to Samoa. I have written to Baxter about his
proposal.[73]

FOOTNOTES:

[56] The correspondent whose letter I had sent on was a high official
at the Foreign Office: the subject, Stevenson and Samoa.

[57] Hemorrhage from the lungs.

[58] Vitrolle's _Memoires_ and